This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention that is recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived, implemented or described. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Tactile displays are known in the art and research in this area is particularly advanced in the regime of mobile phones/terminals, but such displays are also used in other non-radio types of user devices. Tactile displays are used for receiving user inputs at a touch-sensitive graphical display interface, for providing haptic feedback, and for transducing electrical signals to sound waves. Increasingly a single tactile display will combine multiple ones of these different functions.
FIG. 1 herein reproduces FIG. 1 of US Patent Application 2010/0225600. A touch sensitive lens 106 has touch sensors 110 integrated to a surface 108 or 109 which generate a signal in response to haptic input from a user. The user interface can also have a display bezel 118 that provides a back plate 120 for securely holding a light emitting display 114, and a speaker 122 which responds to vibrations generated by piezoelectric elements 126. These piezoelectric elements 126 cooperate to provide an actuator 124. A phone chassis 128 is positioned away and spaced from the piezoelectric elements, and a housing 132 holds the phone chassis and display structure (touch sensitive lens, light emitting display, bezel and piezoelectric elements). Gaskets 134, 140 space an upper peripheral portion 136 of the phone chassis from a peripheral back portion 138 of the bezel of the display module, and space a lower peripheral portion 142 of the phone chassis from a lower ledge 144 of the housing.
Detailed below are structural improvements to the display structure shown at FIG. 1.